Report No. 27
6. Present Code well-thought out.-The foregoing survey reveals that the Code of 1908 is a product of well-thought out efforts and experimentation extending over more than half a century. The Code has stood the test of time. It has on the whole worked satisfactorily and smoothly and has evoked the admiration of many distinguished authorities. An eminent Chief Justice of a High Court observed recently thus1:
"The more you study the Civil Procedure Code the more you realise what an admirable piece of legislation it is."
Similar views were expressed in the course of the evidence given before the Law Commission in connection with the preparation of its Report on the Reform of Judicial Administration2. We have, therefore, been very cautious in proposing any radical changes in the Code of 1908.
1. Chagla C.J. (as he then was) in his foreword to Soonavala's Treatise on the Law of Execution Proceedings (1958).
2. 14th Report, Vol. I.
7. Scheme of revision.-The Law Commission has, in its Fourteenth Report, indicated the broad lines on which the Code should be revised. Before making its Report, the Commission toured the whole country and elicited public opinion on some of the important problems relating to the Reform of Judicial Administration. In making our recommendations for the revision of the Code, we have taken the following materials into consideration:-
(i) The recommendations made in the Fourteenth Report, in so far as those recommendations contemplated changes in the law of civil procedure;
(ii) The amendments made by State Legislatures in the body of the Code;
(iii) The amendments made by the various High Courts in the rules contained in the First Schedule to the Code;
(iv) The new Rules of the Supreme Court in England which are based largely on the recommendations contained in the Evershed Report1 and which came into force on the 1st January, 1964;
(v) The County Court Rules, 1936, as amended up-to-date;
(vi) The conflict of judicial opinion on the interpretation of various provisions of the Code;
(vii) The suggestions received by us for amendment of the Code.
1. Final Report of the Committee on Supreme Court Practice and Procedure, (1953) Cmd. 8878.
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